British Gas £2500 final bill

freaked

Hi. I've just moved house and received my final bill from British Gas... for £2500!

For the 6 years I've been living in my previous rental house (small 2 bed end-terrace) I've been paying monthly by direct debit. The amount seems to vary every few months between £60 and £100 which seemed bloody expensive but it was a pretty inefficient house. I have someone come and read the meter roughly every year, and that, I thought, was nice and simple. No messing about opening bills, no scrutinising meter readings... just one reading per year and it'd all correct itself over time... Sounded good to me!

HOWEVER

It seems they've been ignoring the meter readings (woman on the phone says they haven't had ANY readings since 2006!). So I've got my final bill, which covers 16 months, for £3600, with £1100 paid, leaving £2500 which they're going to take from my account next week. Obviously, I've cancelled my DD, but I'm petrified it'll be honoured regardless leaving me up there without a paddle.

Spent nearly 2 hours on the phone to them this morning and got nowhere. Even if my meter hasn't been playing up (I'm sure I've been using more gas than the average hotel according to it), they're refusing to re-estimate my bill from the last actual meter reading back in 2006, so instead of paying under 1/3 of it on the expensive new rates, they want me to pay nearly all of it on there. "We can't do that" they say - but they've re-estimated the last 16 months ok?

The worst thing is I think I'm about to take a heavy hit on my credit record due to this, and I really don't want the bailiffs turning up at my new house.

What can I do? The BG customer services manager I spoke to this morning wasn't interested in discussing anything, just re-iterating the same "that's your bill, pay it now or we'll make your life hell" over and over

The best of it is they say they have an actual meter reading for February, when according to them I must have owed a couple of grand... That's when they LOWERED my direct debit by £7/month.

freaked

Thanks for the advice.

Eric_Pisch

so you never took a reading yourself?

you didn't take a reading when you left? (we photograph our meters at both ends)


If not can you get back and check the meter reading now?

unless they have estimated the reading and you can show its lower now i doubt you have a leg to stand on

Cardew

I assume this is an electric only house?

The problem is that once a meter reading is wrong by a considerable margin, the computer 'thinks' it is a reading error and substitutes an estimated reading.

Next actual reading is obviously wrong by a wider margin and again an estimated meter reading is substituted etc etc.

Your contribution to this situation is that you obviously haven't checked any bills - and you clearly are at fault in this respect.

Before this gets into the hands of a DCA you need to get it sorted with BG.

Normally BG will make a large percentage reduction in your debt to allow for the fact that the electricity would be a several different rates since 2006.

I would write to them and point this out and also that they have been ignoring actual meter readings, and ask for, say a 50% reduction on the £2,500. If they settle for 25%-30% reduction then accept.

Make your letter firm but not abusive.

freaked

OK So I'm in the wrong because I thought that everything was fine because they sent people round to read the meters and every so often my direct debit changed, but I had no reason to believe that they were ignoring the readings

I actually thought I was overpaying by a substantial amount though - £100/month is a lot to pay for gas, and a lot more than I'm paying now for a house 3x the size. According to what they're saying though, my usage more than doubled in the past 3 years, which it didn't.

I had several LONG phone conversations with BG (because nobody could tell me exactly how I owed them £2500, or when the meter readings they ignored were taken), and in some cases they offered me the chance to settle for £2000, but they wouldn't take it in instalments and now it's gone to a DCA who are calling me daily.

Surely there's got to be some clause in some law that says you can't ignore data on how much someone owes you, then all of a sudden demand in one lump sum the amount the person would have spent 2 years paying at the rate you've been charging them?

Premier_2

freaked wrote: »

Hi.....

Posted 23-06-2009, 3:56 PM

freaked wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

posted Today, 1:51 PM

Glad you found it useful :rolleyes:

Cardew

freaked wrote: »

OK So I'm in the wrong because I thought that everything was fine because they sent people round to read the meters and every so often my direct debit changed, but I had no reason to believe that they were ignoring the readings


Surely there's got to be some clause in some law that says you can't ignore data on how much someone owes you, then all of a sudden demand in one lump sum the amount the person would have spent 2 years paying at the rate you've been charging them?

The small print(which few of us read!) states that you should check your bill and if it is an estimated reading, ring in with a correct reading.

We all understand that is is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that all is OK - when it ain't!

The £60 to £100 DD you were paying was possibly to be paying back part of an earlier debt.

So what are you going to do now it is in the hands of a DCA?

DVardysShadow

freaked wrote: »

OK So I'm in the wrong because I thought that everything was fine because they sent people round to read the meters and every so often my direct debit changed, but I had no reason to believe that they were ignoring the readings

Not even the readings on the bills? The bills didn't tell you that your readings were being ignored?

I actually thought I was overpaying by a substantial amount though - £100/month is a lot to pay for gas, and a lot more than I'm paying now for a house 3x the size. According to what they're saying though, my usage more than doubled in the past 3 years, which it didn't.

I had several LONG phone conversations with BG (because nobody could tell me exactly how I owed them £2500, or when the meter readings they ignored were taken), and in some cases they offered me the chance to settle for £2000, but they wouldn't take it in instalments and now it's gone to a DCA who are calling me daily.

Stage 0. Look at he following stages and if you agree with them, write to BG and tell them that this is how you are going to proceed with resolving the matter
Stage 1. Work out whether the bill accurately reflects your closing reading. Get this agreed with BG
Stage 2. Work out whether the usage is correctly attributed to the right dates and the right tariffs. Get this agreed with BG
Stage 3. Agree a payment plan, which BG should to be decent allow you to pay over the same period as the arrears accumulated

Surely there's got to be some clause in some law that says you can't ignore data on how much someone owes you, then all of a sudden demand in one lump sum the amount the person would have spent 2 years paying at the rate you've been charging them?

Half the country dislikes nanny state laws and the other half wants laws which are unnecessary if they just checked their bills.

macman

So where has the OP been for the last 5 months? If the DCA were about to be unleashed in June, I'm not surprised that they're calling daily in November!